Different Life: 9th & 10th Commandmentsናሙና

The 9th & 10th Commandments are interesting in that they hold us responsible for our thoughts and desires.

This, of course, implies that we can control our thoughts and desires. Certainly that we can control what we do with them. People today often see themselves as helpless to their thoughts and passions. As though they can’t control them. As though they have no choice but to think or act in a certain way. It leads to a victim mentality.

When it comes to our thoughts, Martin Luther has been quoted as saying, “I cannot keep the birds from flying over my head, but I can keep them from building nests in my hair.“ While difficult, God calls us to master our thoughts. He promises a renewing of the mind. This calls for sacrifice and discipline – giving up certain thoughts and training our minds to think differently.

In the movie A Beautiful Mind, John Nash is plagued by mental illness. His brilliant mind simultaneously leads him to obsess over false patterns and fixate on thoughts that led to self-destructive realities. In the movie (and in real life), John came to master these. He called it “a diet of the mind.” It was a self-denial of thought patterns he liked. The apostle Peter phrases it differently, “Gird the loins of your mind“ (1 Peter 3:16). Don’t leave your mind exposed and free to do whatever it wishes.

If the way of the world is about embracing whatever thought we have as a true expression of who we are (while simultaneously stuffing down and denying any thought that isn’t socially acceptable), God’s way is different. God wants us to confess our thoughts and desires to him. He wants us to take our thoughts captive. He wants us to sacrifice thoughts and desires not pleasing to him. In this process he’ll transform our thoughts and desires.

What thoughts plague you? Bring these to God today. Ask him to renew and transform your thoughts and desires. Then examine yourself. What do you expose yourself to? Who do you listen to? What do you watch? What media do you consume? Who do you surround yourself with? What’s shaping the way you think and the things you want? Be aware of what thought processes you entertain and how you let certain lines of thought get away from you. Bring them to God. He will transform you. Sometimes it takes time, but his promise is sure.